CoachIQ announced they have raised a $1.3 million pre-seed investment led by Utah-based Startup Ignition Ventures. Founded by former Division 1 college athletes, CoachIQ is a one- stop shop helping sports coaches run their coaching businesses.
San Diego, December 5, 2024
CoachIQ is an all in one business platform for private sports coaching businesses. Founded by three former collegiate athletes, CoachIQ equips coaches with the tools and technology to streamline their operations, grow their business, and deliver exceptional coaching experiences to athletes.
CoachIQ recently announced the closing of a $1.3 million seed round led by Utah-based Startup Ignition Ventures (SIV).
Other investors include professional athletes, exited founders, and prominent entrepreneurs in the sports coaching space. Notable names include Tanner Scheppers, retired MLB pitcher; Jeff Hartings, retired NFL offensive lineman; Adam Menner, sports coaching business owner and CoachIQ customer; James Kovach, retired NFL linebacker; and Chris Magleby, a Utah-based entrepreneur and CEO of Mindless Labs, among others.
CoachIQ, headquartered in San Diego, has strong ties to Utah and counts BYU graduate and football legend Steve Young among its formal advisors. CoachIQ recently participated in Startup Ignition’s Bootcamp Lehi Cohort 18.
“We're further along than your typical pre-seed. We've built out our insights in a very financially disciplined manner and we're excited to be entering this next phase on a strong foundation,” said Ryan Bua, CEO of CoachIQ.
“CoachIQ exemplifies the type of innovative and founder-driven companies we seek to invest in at Startup Ignition Ventures,” said John Richards, managing partner of SIV. “The founders’ mission to streamline and elevate the coaching experience not only transforms the lives of coaches but also makes sports more accessible to athletes worldwide. We’re excited to support their journey and the impact they’re creating in the sports industry.”
Co-founded by Russell Reeder and Ryan Bua, both Division 1 linebackers for the UC Davis Aggies from 2013-2017, and CTO Corey Quick who played baseball for Wofford University, CoachIQ’s origin stems from upper level college sports.
Ryan Bua recently sat down with TechBuzz to discuss CoachIQ’s backstory, its product, and the company’s recent traction. Bua explained that CoachIQ was born out of the passion to solve the massive issue in youth athletics: it is a fragmented and confusing ecosystem that often overcharges and underserves athletes and their families.
“The athletic experience is full of camps, online coaching, leagues, clubs, recruiting services, and more,” explained Bua. “Parents and athletes are overwhelmed by all the options and lack a clear understanding of what they actually need. Most athletes only know they want a college scholarship—their ignorance is taken advantage of.” Bua shared that his own frustrating experience with the recruiting industry is just one example of the larger problem. But the solution, he says, isn’t another app or another service targeting athletes—it's empowering the coaches who are already in their corner.
“The coach is the solution to the athlete’s problems,” explained Bua. “We’re helping coaches become what athletes need them to be. They’re uniquely positioned to guide athletes and their families through this mess and our mission is to empower sports coaching businesses to step into that role. Youth athletes spend about $30b annually in their pursuit of athletic development; we believe a large portion of that will be captured through the local coach."
This vision is what united Bua and his cofounder, Reeder. After graduating from UC Davis, they teamed up to transform Reeder’s early project into what is now CoachIQ. Together, they built a platform designed to simplify the athlete’s journey by equipping sports coaching businesses with the tools they need to succeed. Since launching its full product in August 2024, CoachIQ has grown to serve around 500 coaching businesses across the US, Europe, Australia, Canada, and Latin America, and currently facilitates about $5 million in payments annually for its customers.
CoachIQ helps its customers run businesses that outcompete in their local areas. The platform manages a coach’s website, scheduling, lead generation, payments CRM, online coaching, and more. The athletic development industry as a whole benefits from the efficiencies that CoachIQ unlocks.
Bua explained how this works:
“The administrative burden is baked into the cost that gets passed on to athletes. Coaches have their own bills to pay, and if their revenue per coaching hours are limited by administrative work, they’ll increase their pricing to compensate for that lost time. What CoachIQ is doing is giving coaches back the lost time they spent doing administrative work and giving athletes the ability to pay for coaching based on value, not time.”
CoachIQ can be tailored to any individual coach's needs, regardless of where they’re at in their business journey and it can be applied to a wide range of sports: “Basketball, softball, soccer, and football have become our staples,” said Bua. “But we’re in many different sports as well. We are supporting coaches in about 13 different sports at the moment, with more to come.”
Bua said CoachIQ is supporting coaches of racket sports such as tennis and pickleball. “And we’re working with some top end brands in jujitsu. We even work with the more obscure niches—a coach that teaches BMX,” added Bua.
CoachIQ’s pricing model is a monthly subscription to coaches, which gives them access to the full suite of CoachIQ tools.
Bua explained part of the value of CoachIQ is that it replaces many existing software solutions that coaches are currently piecing together.
“First, we remove the disconnected software solutions they’re using and consolidate those functions into our software. Second, we ensure their business model is built to scale. Lastly, we provide the tools and support that empower coaches to grow, breaking through the ceiling of what they can accomplish."
CoachIQ can also be tailored to a coach's individual needs, as Bua stated:
“Coaching can be a truly limitless profession, and when a coach builds their business on our platform, that coach can achieve that limitless outcome. Our platform is the underpinning of a coaching business, but we don't need them logging into our platform 50 times a day. What we are building is a platform that truly works for the coach and moves their business forward whether that coach is logged in or not.”
Regarding some of the challenges Bua and Reeder have faced, Bua explained, “the biggest challenge is that many coaches are still very “old school” in how they operate. For many coaches it is still a very pen and paper market and this is both a challenge and an opportunity for us.”
Going forward, Bua and Reeder want to focus on building a delightful product and fostering the community around the software:
“Going into 2025, we’re remaining very product focused. We have an engaged community of coaches and we’re going to continue focusing on them and building a product that exceeds their expectations until the CoachIQ experience is undeniably excellent and our customers cannot stop talking about us to their colleagues.
Learn more about CoachIQ by clicking here.